Fountain Hills Toastmasters Compete in Annual Speech Contests

It's Toastmasters International contest season and the Fountain Hills Toastmasters held its club-level competition on January 8, with members presenting their best stories and speeches in both the International and Table Topics categories. Club officers, along with special guest Sunnys Hsieh, who serves as the Toastmasters Phoenix Area Director, extended their thanks and kudos to everyone who participated as speakers, judges, timers, ballot counters, and audience members, with huge congratulations to the winners.

For Table Topics, each contestant was asked to speak, with no advance preparation, about “The Best Day of Your Life.” For International Speech, each speaker wrote and rehearsed a longer presentation about individual topics of their own choosing. The amazing Valerie Krugh managed to nab first place in both categories and will advance to represent Fountain Hills Toastmasters Club 6993 on February 15 at the Phoenix Area Contest! The winners included:

Table Topics Speech:

First place - Valerie Krugh

Second place - Richelle Hopkins

Third place - Peter Gallagher

International Speech:

First place - Valerie Krugh (“Not Tonight”)

Second place - Kristin Milashoski (“Dear Vicky”)

Third place - Kathy Koultourides (“Perspective”)

Speech contests are a worldwide Toastmasters tradition. Each year, thousands of Toastmasters compete in the speech contests, with categories that rotate annually. Competition begins with club contests, and winners advancing to compete through the Area, Division, and District levels. Winners of the District level International Speech Contest proceed to the quarterfinal level. Following the quarterfinals, winners advance to the semifinals for a chance to take part in the World Championship of Public Speaking®. The Fountain Hills Toastmasters Club boasts a proud history of talented members who have won speech contests at various levels.

Through their participation in Toastmasters, members are able to improve their public speaking skills, build leadership skills, maximize their potential, enjoy unlimited personal growth, work on networking in a small and supportive environment, practice writing speeches and presenting in a group setting, gain a competitive advantage in the workplace, and boost their self-confidence and self-awareness.

At the Fountain Hills Toastmasters Club, all of this is achieved through participation at fun and creative meetings that are held at the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce at 11 a.m. on the first and third Monday of each month and at 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday. Guests are always welcome to come listen, learn, and see what Toastmasters is all about! For more information, visit fountainhills.toastmastersclubs.org and follow Fountain Hills Toastmasters on Facebook and LinkedIn.